


Left 4 Dad

by Drixel



Category: Left 4 Dead (Video Games)
Genre: Adopted Children, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Alternate Universe - No Zombies, Family Fluff, Found Family, Let those old men find love, M/M, Single Parents, Slow Build, The ship is called Bich sorry I don't make the rules
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 08:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19269271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drixel/pseuds/Drixel
Summary: Being a single parent is always tough. But when you've got three kids all under six, it gets tougher.Thankfully for Coach, he's got a neighbor who's willing to give a hand.That is, when Bill's not preoccupied with his OWN kids.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Six of the eight survivors got diagnosed with babbey by CEDA. Now Coach and Bill are raising them like a good single dads.  
> For reference ages:  
> Francis is 6.  
> Nick is 5.  
> Louis is 4.  
> Rochelle is 3.  
> Ellis and Zoey are 2.  
> Keith is Coach's dog.

"GIMME THAT NOW!" Coach screamed at the knife wielding five-year-old.

"NO, I FOUND IT!" Nick screamed back insolently, completely unaware of danger he was currently posing to the rest of the household. Meanwhile Ro was on the floor screaming at Ellis, who was currently in the process of eating her lego spaceship. Of course it wasn't a real lego spaceship, being little more than three-to-four blocks 'expertly' stacked to make a 'spaceship'. It was small. 

The absolute perfect size to be a choking hazard.

Ro whacked him on the back of the head, making him spit it out. And wail at the top of his lungs. Setting off Keith from the garage.

Coach held his breath as Nick went stock still, half-dropping the knife, half-clutching it to his chest. His entire demeanor changed in an instant, from stubborn child to cornered animal. Coach almost missed the sound of the knife clattering to the floor and the frantic thundering of footsteps as Nick rushed upstairs as he attempted to cease Ellis and Ro's crying and shut Keith up.

Once the dog had quietened down, Ellis and Rochelle included, and the knife put away, he sequestered Ro into her playpen and went upstairs with a sniffling Ellis in his arms for his mid-afternoon nap. He figured getting Ellis to sleep first would make it easier to calm Nick down. It never took much to get Ellis to sleep. But he had to have Keith under his crib. One of the few reasons as to why Ro and Ellis shared a room, and not the two boys together.

Out on the landing, he made sure Nick's room was shut tight before he went to fetch the dog, knowing that just seeing him would probably set off more than just waterworks. Had done the first time. Still couldn't get that stain outta the carpet.

Keith had to have been the ugliest dog he'd ever seen. Some mangy mutt mix with a torn ear and a lot of scar tissue. He'd never wanted a dog. Signed up to be a foster parent not no dog sitter. But he'd come with Ellis. And from what the home said, Ellis could not go to anywhere without screaming for him. So without thinking, Coach agreed to take the dog in. It was only when Nick was faced with Keith that Coach was forcefully reminded of the boys chronic fear of dogs.

That was when he realized he was caught between a rock and a hard place. He was the last hope for that boy and his dog to stay together, some doctor prattling on about the psychological impact that separating them would cause the him, yet he already had a kid too scared of dogs to even watch Paw Patrol. So he came up with the compromise that they wouldn't be in the same room as each other.

Easier said than done when all the blasted mutt wanted to do was follow Ellis around, and all Ellis wanted to do was follow Nick around.

Checking on Ro, giving her a snack to keep her busy and grabbing anything that could class as a choking hazard, he quickly got the dog upstairs, where he took his usual mantle and turned his attention to finding Nick. Kid only had three hiding places and all of them were in his room. Under his bed, in his closet, or in his clothes hamper. He really hoped he wasn't under his bed. His knee was playing up from all that running up and down stairs.

Nick usually gave signs as to where he was hiding, whether he meant to or not. Clothes strewn around the hamper, toys at the foot of the closet, or no comforter on his bed. He groaned inwardly, making a pained face when he saw the missing comforter.

"Nick?"

A sound. Barely there. So muffled he could've missed it if he wasn't looking for it. Getting onto his knees slowly, he looked under the bed, and sure enough, there was the comforter. The face of a distorted pikachu looked back at him. 

"You okay?"

Another noise. Louder, but still so soft. A very clear 'No'.

"You know I'd never let Keith hurt you right?"

Silence. Pikachu shifted. A tiny hand poked through the mass of blanket. Coach reached out and grabbed it, squeezing gently. They lay like that for a moment, until Nick started shifting closer, dragging the comforter with him. Eventually he rolled out from under the bed, and found himself sitting in Coach's lap, comforter still wrapped tightly around him. Coach could feel him shaking as he hugged him. 

He murmured comforting words as he gently lifted Nick into his arms to move the two of them back downstairs, the comforter falling to the floor as Nick buried his face in his shoulder. Once back downstairs, he took the snack wrapper from Ro to put in the trash, setting Nick on the couch as he did so. Nick immediately buried his face in one the the throw pillows and curled inward on himself. Ro seemed to be watching him intently. She looked up at Coach, wide eyed and asked;

"Is Nicky sad again?"

"I'M NOT SAD!" He yelled back, voice muffled by the pillow. Coach grimaced a little. He lifted Ro out of the play pen and set her on his hip, but she wiggled about, immediately wishing to be put down again. Coach could do nothing but comply with her wishes unless he wanted to drop her and she made an immediate B-Line for her older brother, dragging her stuffed dragon with her. She climbed up next to him and tried to hand him the dragon to no avail. 

Coach put the tv on and started flicking through the channels, sitting next to him. The jingle for some cartoon Coach never really payed to much attention to played. He was going to flick past it when he felt a hand on his arm. He didn't need to glance to down to know it was Nick's. Kid either loved or hated the show depending on what episode it was. Ro loved it either way, seeing as she settled down to watch along with. Coach couldn't understand it personally. When he was their age, he was watching Spongebob, not ' _Zombiland_ ' or whatever it was called. Ro swayed a long to the beat quietly, and about half way into the program Nick actually started watching, still clutching the pillow and Coaches arm like a lifeline.

There was a knock at the door. Coach moved to answer it, but Nick didn't let go. Taking the easy way out and scooping Nick back into his arms, he opened the door to find his next door neighbor, Bill standing there, with his own kids in tow. Nick gasped delightedly, spotting Francis peeking out from behind Bill and indicated he wanted to be put down. The two boys then proceeded to run off into the back garden together, as if Nick hadn't been shaking like a leaf almost half-hour earlier. It seemed Francis had gotten at the markers again, his arms covered in squiggles.

Louis followed after them as fast as he could go on crutches. Fell off some monkey bars a few weeks back. Cut the play date short. Coach smiled fondly at the red cast cast covered in names.

Zoey was being held by Bill, a giant washed out red hoodie obscuring the majority of her form, though he could make out the beginnings on a sunflowers on her shirt underneath. He learned the hard way what happens if you try to make her wear anything else.

"You alright?" Bill asked. Bill himself was a crotchety old 'Nam vet who moved to the neighborhood from Philadelphia of all places. He too had become a foster father not too long after he was discharged, after passing all the checks, and had seen many foster kids come and go over the years. He recent lot had been very much unintended, however, since he'd been planning on retiring from that kind of life. But life doesn't always go to plan and he found himself saddled with a six year old, a four year old and a two year old.

Coach sighed. "Been a busy morning.


	2. Chapter 2

The park was a quiet luxury. Everyone had something to do.

Louis was in the sandbox with Ellis and Zoey, Ro was by the climbing frame, and Nick and Francis were off by the slide, meaning Bill could just sit and think. Or at least, could sit and think till someone started crying. Or tried to put something in their mouth. Like Ellis currently.

Why was he always putting something in his mouth. Boy needed a pacifier. If he needed braces in the future so be it damn you.

"Ellis don't eat the sand!" He called out, halting the boy in his tracks, red faced at being caught. From a distance he could see Coach with Keith. So long as Nick didn't look he'd be fine. Probably why Francis was keeping him busy.

"Betcha you can't climb _up_ the slide."

"Betcha I can!"

Heh. Kids.

Zoey tugged on his pant leg. When had she toddled over?

"Juice peas." She asked, making grabby hands at him.

Bill chuckled warmly as he complied. It was always cute when kids mis-said words like that. Zoey sat comfortably at his feet in the dirt as she drank. She was going to need a bath tonight. All of them probably would. At least half of them were covered in sand. Christ she even had it in her hair.

Birds tweeted, trees rustled, and a dog, probably Keith (sounded like him), barked. Bill's eyes narrowed and he payed close attention to Nick, who froze almost immediately. He'd have gone over himself if Francis hadn't grabbed Nick's arm and started talking to him about something. He looked ready to bolt, and Bill was in no mood to run, but Francis kept him still, or still enough to drag him over to Bill. Nick immediately curled up on the bench next to him. Bill offered him a sandwich (No Crusts!), which he reluctantly took. With Zoey drinking and Nick eating he figured it'd be best to call the others over for lunch.

Bringing at least half the sandbox with him, Rochelle had come over to lead Ellis by his hand to where they were sat. Kid wobbled more than any nine-month-old, and he himself had been walking since he was that old at least. Coach mentioned something about getting him checked for balance issues, though the Doctor insisted nothing was wrong. Quacks.

Louis was the last to reach them, understandably taking the time to shaking his cast off. Sitting on the bench next to Nick, he asked him if he was okay. But he only got a glare, a stuck-out tongue and a light shove in return, upsetting him.

"Nick's being mean!" Louis yelled.

"No I'm not!" Nick yelled back, spraying crumbs everywhere as he talked with his mouthful.

Oh Jesus here they go.

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are _too!_ "

"Am _not_!"

"Boys!" Bill cut in sharply. The two boys went silent. Louis at least had the dignity to look sheepish. Nick just looked petulant. Nick always looked petulant. He was _Nick_ for crying out loud! Petulance came with him, oozing from him like an overstuffed sandwich. "Just eat your damn PB&Js or you wont get any pudding."

And to their credit they did, Nick rather sullenly though. With lunch out of the way, the kids returned to the playground, Louis taking his yellow dump-truck with him this time. He was probably going to get a ridiculous amount of sand in his cast, despite his best efforts to keep it out by sitting on the edge of the sand pit.

He probably already had.

 _Great_.

Nick, for obvious reasons, had stayed behind, and so had Ellis, who was sitting next to him talking about something. Sounded like gibberish to Bill, or something about a tv show, but the boy looked happy enough to blabber on. Nick looked like he'd rather be anywhere else though, sinking down on the bench and wrapping his arms around Bill, wiggling closer into his side. Francis came to his rescue, however, picking Ellis up from the bench by his overalls and bringing him over to the others kicking and screaming.

Oh dear.

"Francis, put the boy down."

"Nah."

" _Francis!_ "

"He's bothering Nick."

He didn't know how to counter that and merely grumbled. He heard Nick sniffle beside him. He wasn't crying, but he seemed close to it. From what Coach said, he'd already been freaked by the dog today. Poor kid. He didn't know the whole story, other than his parents were pieces of shit and that dogs were involved some how. He pet the boys dark hair, hoping to provide some comfort, making him bury deeper into his side. 

"Do you wanna go home?" 

Nick shook his head, but didn't make a move back to the playground either. Ellis was still screaming about wanting to play with him. It was starting to hurt his ears. Francis seemed to pawn Ellis of to Louis, who was trying to get him to make sandcastles again to no avail, and made his way back over to Nick, digging in his shorts for something. Turns out it was a marker.

"Hey, wanna tattoo?"

Nick perked up, nodding vigorously, jutting his arm out, his face filled with wonder. Bill was always amazed by how Francis could make Nick come out of his shell after a bad freak-out. He knew the boy idolized him (despite vehemently denying such a fact) but still. Francis then spent half a minute drawing something on his forearm, tongue stuck out in concentration. Nick watched on in poorly-disguised awe. The end result was some crude mockery of a robot and something else he wasn't sure of engaged in what was probably a fearsome battle in their childish minds.

"It's a shark!" Francis announced proudly.

' _Of course it was._ ' Bill thought, giving him an encouraging smile, ruffling his buzz-cut hair.

After all, how could it have been anything else?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter's so short. My motivation for writing has dropped meaning I probably wont be updating as often, or chapters will be shorter than what many of you are used to. Things should pick up again soon. But for now I'm afraid the chapters will be like this. Sorry again and thank you for reading and being patient.


	3. Chapter 3

"Don't wash off my tattoo!" Nick all but demanded once he had been sequestered into the bathtub.

Coach gave him a fond smile, nodding. The smile quickly vanished when Ellis splashed him, giggling wildly. Tutting him, Coach quickly retaliated by pouring water over his head, sending him squealing. Ro was too busy making a bubble beard to pay attention.

Ellis slid over to him, clambering over Nick and Ro to get to him. Coach rolled his eyes and pulled out the shampoo, working up a lather in the toddlers hair. Nick, meanwhile, had joined Ro in her efforts to create a supreme bubble beard rivaling hers in every way. Sensing competition, she tried to one-up him.

"Close your eyes Ellis." Coach asked, preparing another cup of water. Ellis merely put a washcloth over his eyes instead. As Coach ran his hands through the boys hair, trying to remove the soap suds, he noticed it's length. 

"Gonna need a hair cut soon." He murmured. "You too actually Nick."

"Huh?" Nick stopped still, a hand and face full of bubbles. 

* * *

Ro was reading to her dragon egg by the time bath time was over.

It wasn't a real dragon egg of course, but in fact a beautiful piece of carved rose quartz she'd bought on holiday a few months ago. She'd practically obsessed over it when she saw it in the souvenir store and had saved all her holiday money to buy it, whilst Nick blew his on that Dinosaur King card machine thing in the arcade.

At first it seemed like nothing could go wrong, Ellis was babbling away in the back seat with Ro, who was carefully showing him, and Nick was counting his cards, talking back to Ro and Ellis about the 'cool' dinosaurs he got and munching on chocolate-cornflake squares up front when Ro piped up from the back.

"How long is it gonna take for my dragon to hatch?"

Coach nearly choked on his own spit. How the hell was he supposed to tell her. Nick was looking at him with an expectant, knowing look. He took a deep breath, preparing to tell Ro the truth when Coach cut him off;

"Well, you see Sweet-Pea, dragons usually take a very long time to hatch, so it means it may not hatch in your life time-"

"Or ever!"

"Nicholas!" Coach gave the boy a sharp glare, who merely returned to his cards, carefully tying them up with an elastic band and sticking them in his fanny-pack with his pokemon cards, pulling out his gameboy in the process. "It just means you have to take real good care of it until then, okay?"

Ro nodded vigorously and put her egg carefully back in its box.

And that seemed to have solved it. Coach had almost expected her to forget about it as soon as they had arrived home. The three of them had already fallen asleep, Ellis drooling on himself, Nick covered in chocolate smears and Ro hugging the box tightly.

It had been a cute scene. He wished he'd had a camera.

But here she was, reading to that egg every night, till she tuckered herself out. Currently she was making her way through 'The Gruffalo', every sentence being read slower than the last as she struggled to keep her eyes open. He smiled fondly, as she head fell to her chin and she rolled backwards, asleep.

Keith let out a sneeze from underneath Ellis' crib as Coach gently picked her up and carried her to her bed. She stirred a little, but ultimately settled down. Coach glanced back at the crib momentarily. Ellis had pushed himself up to the bars, squishing his face slightly, but ultimately he was 'dead to the world'.

Once in bed, her arms immediately wrapped around her stuffed dragon, squeezing it tightly to her pajamaed chest as Coach tucked her in. Placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, he put the book and egg away in it's little 'nest box' before going to check on Nick.

* * *

 He was upright in bed, DS in hand, music for whatever game he was playing blaring loudly. He barely glanced up when Coach came in.

"Nick?"

The sound turned down, but he didn't look up, utterly engrossed in whatever game he was playing.

"Nick, look at me."

The boy sighed but looked up regardless, brushing his damp hair from his eyes. 

"It's bed time young'n."

"But I'm not sleepy!"

"No buts. Bed!"

Nick scowled, but Coach was having none of it. Sighed in defeat, he saved his game and handed it over to Coach.

"Thank you. What story did you want me to read tonight?"

Nick's eyes lit up as he jumped out of bed and ran over to his bookshelf. He all but slammed the book in Coach's hands before crawling back under the comforter, feet kicking joyfully as Coach sat down next to him, pulling his glasses out of his shirt pocket and looking at the cover.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone huh?"

"Yeah!"

Coach raised an eyebrow. The choice of book seemed more like Ro's kind of thing, fantasy and magic, but hell if the boy wanted it read, then he would read.

Taking a deep breath, Coach put on his 'Narrator Voice' and began to read.

* * *

He fell asleep not too long after the first chapter. Coach gently ruffled his hair, putting the book away and turning the light off as he left, making sure to turn his nightlight on though, some cheap thing made to look like one of the Ninja Turtles. It was Leo, if the blue mask was an indicator, but in all honestly he couldn't remember which turtle was which.

He checked back in with Ro, Ellis and Keith. The two children were still very much asleep, so Coach took the opportunity to give Keith a treat and a scratch behind the ear, whispering how he was such a good boy, before making his way back downstairs, avoiding any spots that might creak unnecessarily. 

Having safely made it downstairs, he pulled out his phone and immediately started texting Bill. 

"Hey, kids asleep?"


End file.
